Friendship goes beyond drag racing for longtime NHRA crew chief Richard Hogan and Top Fuel driver Steve Torrence.

A pettier man than Hogan might have had his feelings bruised last year following the April race at Houston, when he and the Capco Dragster owner-driver parted ways. Torrence said at that time, “Richard Hogan is a very close friend of mine, and he and I were friends before any of this race stuff even started.” But of course, racers often say happy things like that when they let personnel go.

But Torrence meant it. For example, they went hunting together last December, on a 5,000-acre reserve at historic Callaghan Ranch, near Laredo, Texas, that Torrence has leased. They paced together for four or five days straight in the tower above the thick Texas brush that’s chock full of feral hogs, javelinas, and their targeted whitetail deer. And the subject of drag racing never came up.

“Whatever happened before, that doesn’t even bother us at all,” Hogan said. “We never discussed anything about the race car.”

Their renewed partnership at the racetrack got started months later, during preseason testing in January at Palm Beach International Raceway, near Jupiter, Fla.

“I was at Palm Beach with Jim Head,” Hogan said. “I talk to Steve off and on quite a bit. And he said, ‘We’re having trouble.’ He came over – he visits with Jim Head quite a bit – and said, ‘We’re having trouble, and I’m not sure what we’re going to do.’ He and his dad talked about it, and he asked if I’d come over and help him out. It kind of went from there.

“I just helped them the last day, because they hadn’t made any kind of decision on anything until it was really a little too bit late for me to help them much there,” he said. “So I told them I’d see them that weekend, Monday-Tuesday before Pomona, at Vegas, and then go from there.

“It really wasn’t much to it,” Hogan said. “It was: ‘We need some help. What are you doin’?’ ” He said he simply went over to “try to figure out what they were missing.”

Torrence said over the public-address system at Pomona that the reuniting was just a situation of two friends getting together: “We were at Palm Beach, and I said, ‘C’mon, Richard, let’s go back to racin’.”

“That’s real close, real accurate,” the easygoing Hogan said.

Hogan didn’t go from Florida back to the Capco-Torrence race shop at Brownsburg, Ind. He went instead to somewhere much warmer than there or than his home on a 40-acre plot near Ennis, Mont. He went with Jim and Tammy Head to the Turks and Caicos, in the Caribbean.

This Hogan-Torrence reunion was not without some help and sacrifice from Funny Car team owner Jim Head.

The original plan when Hogan went to Palm Beach was to take off that Saturday for the islands with the Head family. But because Hogan was helping Torrence, he was able to talk Head into staying in Florida one more day. So Jim and Chad Head decided to run their Funny Car that Saturday. Then Jim Head flew Hogan back to Florida earlier than planned so Hogan could hop on a commercial flight out West to join the Torrence team at Las Vegas and for the start of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

“I just met them [Torrence and crew] at Las Vegas and started over again,” Hogan said. “They were all good with it [his trip to the Turks and Caicos]. We communicated over the phone and texted and everything.”

Hogan said Jim and Chad Head have been fine with his involvement again with Torrence, because they’re all friends. Besides, he said, the Top Fuel advice he dispenses has no bearing on their Funny Car performance.

He said he’ll be available on occasion to help Chad Head’s crew but “not like anything official.” He said Steve and Billy Torrence have no problem with sharing him some, “as long as it didn’t distract from whatever they were doing.” For example, Head might test the day after the upcoming Phoenix race ends. If so, Hogan would join them, and Torrence gave his blessing.  

Hogan’s return to the Torrence team might have gone under the radar with some fans because it was such a natural move, one that might have made some wonder if they had been confused thinking Hogan ever left at all.

“We didn’t do any kind of announcement. They’ve already got personnel in place and all that. So there wasn’t any need to make any kind of official news that I’m over there,” Hogan said. “I mean, I’m for sure working with ‘em, and they’re planning on me staying for the duration.

“They already had Bobby Lagana. I consider him the crew chief on Steve’s car. He was already in place. They’d hired him for the year. I’m just going to make sure it all happens like I would do it.”

Perhaps because of his wealth of experience, Hogan is the crew chief in Torrence’s mind and Lagana the assistant.

But Lagana, whose heart is as big as his smile and whose devotion to his family and racing family is legendary, jumped in last year and helped Torrence keep on the right track. Torrence won at Bristol, earned a runner-up finish at the U.S. Nationals, and continued his Countdown qualifying streak.

Really, labels are the least of anyone’s concern at Capco/Torrence Racing. Winning is what counts. And Donnie Bender, who’ll serve as crew chief for Billy Torrence’s dragster when it makes its 2014 debut, plays a key role, especially at the Brownsburg shop.

Bender is the shop boss, parts boss, day-to-day operations manager there, but he also is an extra hand until Steve Torrence’s car is consistently strong enough to warrant rollout of the second car.

“Donnie will be out with us at some races to stay up with what we’re doing so he will be ready when we do bring out the second car,” Torrence said. “Donnie has done a really good job. And Bobby is awesome to work with.”  

For the better part of this year, Torrence and Hogan will go hunting again. But this time they’ll talk all day and evening long about the race car and leave whitetail deer, javelinas, and feral hogs out of the conversation. They’ll be aiming for a Top Fuel championship.

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